Human Rights Day a time to challenge abusive homeland security laws

December 10, 4:04 PMPolitical Issues ExaminerJudah Freed

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President and Chair of the UN Commission on Human
Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt, looking at the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in Spanish. (UN Photo)

On this day when we celebrate the 60th anniversary for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as we near the end of the administration of President George W. Bush,  a question hangs in the air.

Does demonizing adversaries as evil “bad guys” give any government the right to treat their foes unfairly or deny their natural human rights?

As a case in point, civil libertarians contend many of the recent U.S. homeland security laws violate the Constitutional rights of free speech, peaceful assembly, due process, trial by jury, and equal protection under law. They claim these laws permit unreasonable searches and seizures along with cruel and unusual punishments.

Human rights advocates similarly complain about the “security certificates” in Canada and the “control orders” in Britain. Terrorism has been cited to justify revoking hard-won civil liberties in Colombia, France, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and elsewhere.

George Washington wrote, “It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.”

One example is the USA PATRIOT Act. The acronym stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” While the act has many worthy provisions, such as better communication among intelligence and law inforcement agencies, or hiring trained translators, the law has many flaws.

Typical of the flaws in the act is the so-called “sneak and peek” provision. A secret warrant from a secret court, created under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), lets agents enter any location when no one is there to search for and seize any property or material “evidence.” The suspect may never know the legal burglary was not done by criminal thieves. This and other parts of the “temporary” law have now become permanent.

When our leaders pledge to “hunt down the terrorists and kill them before they can kill us,” a viewpoint we've even heard from President-elect Barack Obama, are we willing to forfeit the lawful presumption of innocence and void the right to a fair trial in open court?

When “enemies” are secretly detained and tortured, are we willing to forego warrants based upon probable cause? Are we willing to waive habeas corpus, to let our governments imprison people for years without charges, without bail, without seeing an attorney, or without any trial?

Alexander Hamilton said, “Arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.”

We’ve been told the new security laws are temporary measures during the “war on terrorism,” but nowhere in the new laws of the U.S. and other nations is there any guarantee our rights one day will be fully restored. Why not?

Here’s the truth: Secret police powers, once obtained, however obtained, are never willingly surrendered by the police.

More critically, did we want the restructuring of our governments onto a fear-based “endless war” footing? Why have the citizens in any democratic nation not once been given a chance to vote directly on whether or not they want all of these repressive new national security laws? Did our leaders guess we’d reject their plans.

Why do so few of us protest the security laws or demand their repeal? Why do so many of us remain part of what Amy Goodman calls "the silenced majority" of Americans? Do you think these security laws will never apply to you?

Recall what German pastor Martin Niemöller wrote of the Nazis after his arrest in 1937. “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a communist; then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist; then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist; then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew; then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Naomi Wolf outlined our clear and present danger in a 2007 article in The Guardian of London that identified ten steps to a fascist state. In her book, The End of America, she expanded on these steps:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
2. Create a secret Gulag-style prison system.
3. Develop a private paramilitary army.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Infiltrate and harass citizen groups.
6. Arbitrarily detain and release dissidents.
7. Target individuals in influential social positions.
8. Control the press.
9. Equate dissent with treason.
10. Suspend the rule of law.

The U.S. has taken all ten steps under the Bush administration. So have other nations, or they’ve taken many of these steps. To reverse the trend, we need to urge President Obama and the new Democrat-controlled congress to revoke the most egregious laws and regulations In the name of protecting our republican democracy.

Unless we take robust and peaceful action to assert our natural human rights, humanity will continue heedlessly hurtling toward tyranny.

(Note: This column is based on my book, Global Sense.)

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